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Writer's pictureAccountability Team
Dec 21, 20234 min read

Circulation List for December 21, 2023

Holiday scheduling, Call to Artists, plus communication from other municipalities regarding the revocation of "Strong Mayor Powers", auditing the Bradford Bypass, Guaranteed Livable Income, addressing the housing crisis, and the epidemic of Intimate Partner Violence




📑📊 Staff Memos


❄️🗓️ January Events Calendar - Recreation and Culture Services



👥📃 Committee Agendas

  • Nil



✍️📨 Correspondence


🚐🗓️ City's Holiday Schedule Changes


🎨🧑‍🎨 Seeds to Sow Public Art Exhibition


🐟🛣️ Environmental Assessment for Bradford Bypass

  • Correspondence from Township of Brock, December 1: https://barrie.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=12539281&GUID=836D4EF7-E452-4B91-A5DF-309F3EA9378A , raising concerns about the streamlined Environmental Assessment process being used for the Bradford Bypass and future highway builds

  • The Township of Brock is asking the Ministry of Transportation to publicly release the traffic studies, clearly indicating the points of origin and time savings to justify the project, and

  • perform a "value for money" audit of the project, comparing it to regional road and public transit alternatives (and pay for regional road improvements, if traffic studies and evaluation of alternatives justify it), and

  • a plan for sustainable transportation be created, prioritizing the Lake Simcoe Watershed Area, and

  • build GO Stations in Innisfil and Barrie to include all-day two-way electrification of the GO line, and

  • complete the following studies:

    • impacts to Lake Simcoe

    • Cumulative Climate Impacts

    • Cumulative Health Assessments

    • Cumulative Water Impacts, and

  • that a salt alternative will be used on the Bradford Bypass


🪦🧑‍💼 Cemetery Transfer, Abandonment Administration and Management Support

  • Correspondence from Township of Clearview, December 12: https://barrie.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=12539284&GUID=3C3B0549-E330-4449-948B-5861F3C2095E, raising concerns about costs to municipalities when cemetery owners and operators transfer ownership or abandon their cemeteries to the municipality

  • Supporting Staff Report: https://barrie.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=12539285&GUID=B5BC492E-782F-4128-88C9-40A38951A43C

  • The Township of Clearview is asking the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and the Bereavement Authority of Ontario (BAO) to amend the Funeral, Burial and Cremation Services Act to have the Province, through the BAO, identified as the default owner and operator of an abandoned cemetery, and

  • provide annual funding to municipalities to assist with the maintenance of inactive and active cemeteries, and

  • provide free training opportunities for municipalities regarding cemetery administration, and

  • investigate and support the design of universal cemetery software for use by municipal cemetery operators that can be offered at an affordable cost


🏘️⚠️ Housing Crisis – Revoking "Strong Mayor Powers"

  • Correspondence from Town of Plympton-Wyoming, December 1: https://barrie.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=12539286&GUID=102D8A76-AA15-4903-B5A5-69A0FF599ADB, supporting the resolutions of the Western Ontario Wardens Caucus

  • Calling on the Province to work with Ontario municipalities to focus all efforts on tackling the housing and affordability crisis in Ontario by:

    • revoking existing "Strong Mayor Powers" and not implementing legislation that transfers legislative responsibility from the body of Council to the head of Council

    • respecting spheres of jurisdiction, recognizing that municipalities are best positioned to determine the mix of roles and responsibilities between upper- and lower-tier municipalities and only conduct structural and service delivery reviews of municipalities or regions where a majority of municipalities included within the region request it

    • recognizing rural and small urban municipalities are critical to overcoming the housing and affordability crisis, and not allocating the majority of scarce provincial housing supportive funding to a limited subset of large urban municipalities in Ontario, and

  • calling on the Province to provide all municipalities with the financial resources to tackle the housing and affordability crisis in Ontario that is pricing too many people out of home ownership, while amplifying socio-economic disparities and reliance on municipally-provided human services


🏘️🏢 Long-Term Housing lost to Short-Term Rentals

  • Correspondence from City of Thunder Bay, December 19: https://barrie.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=12539287&GUID=62968B20-4DDC-4046-BD29-6BE7E8E30EEC

  • Calling on the Province to establish a regulatory framework requiring digital platforms such as AirBNB and VRBO to

    • require owners using the digital platforms to comply with municipal planning and licensing regulations

    • prevent advertising of properties not registered with the relevant municipality

    • provide a contact with the platform to ensure ongoing and effective communications for provincial and municipal officials, and

  • work with municipalities to address situations in which long-term housing stock has been lost to corporate ownership of short-term rental properties


💵🙏 Guaranteed Livable Income


♀🏥 Gender-based Violence and Intimate Partner Violence

  • Correspondence from County of Brant, December 21: https://barrie.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=12539290&GUID=971148BE-7DBC-42F7-A8EB-570BCC782E63

  • Declaring Gender-based Violence and Intimate Partner Violence to be an epidemic,

  • recommending that the Province declare it an epidemic as well,

  • asking the Federal government to add "Femicide" as a term to the Criminal Code of Canada,

  • asking the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) and all municipalities and regions in Ontario to declare this an epidemic across the country

  • asking the Provincial and Federal governments to declare it an epidemic and enact the additional 95 recommendations from the inquest into the 2015 murders of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam in Renfrew County, which provide a roadmap to preventing intimate partner violence from escalating to femicide

  • asking the Provincial and Federal governments to provide the necessary support to municipalities, regions and their emergency and social services to meaningfully address the gender-based violence and intimate-partner violence epidemic

  • direct staff to assess what would be required to complete a Community IPV Action Plan, and include the ways the County can ensure that all victims of intimate partner violence are included



⏳➕ Late Additions

  • Nil




A colourful pile of documents, envelopes and letters.

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